Allen C. Guelzo Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas (2009)

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. And yet,though he was determined that while I remain in my present position I shallnot attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall Ireturn to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation,or by any of the Acts of Congress, nevertheless, he acknowledged that theExecutive power itself would be greatly diminished by the cessation of actualwar. He admitted to Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens as late asthe Hampton Roads Conference in February 1865 that his own opinion wasthat as the proclamation was a war measure and would have effect only fromits being an exercise of the war power, as soon as the war ceased, it would beinoperative. He insisted that he would make it apply to such slaves as hadcome under its operation while it was in active exercise, including slaves defacto liberated by the Union armies.But he was aware that the courts mightdecide the other way. Hence, Lincoln s eagerness as early as 1864 for a consti-tutional amendment which would put emancipation beyond the reach evenof the federal courts.29But Lincoln would grant this much to his political critics.If they wished exclusively to save the Union and not to emancipate slaves, their love forthe Union (if really you are for the Union) was quite acceptable to Lincoln andshould carry them forward with him to the goal of saving it. Fight you, then,exclusively to save the Union. And whenever they had succeeded in conquering all resistance to the Union, if Lincoln should ask them to fight any longerdefending emancipation 169after that, then it will be an apt time, then, for you to declare you will notfight to free negroes. All this, of course, was a highly subtle joke.By the timesuch critics had fought and saved the Union, the war for black freedom wouldalso be over.But while the war was still on, there was no other way to get blackhelp to save the Union than through offering blacks freedom. Negroes, likeother people, act upon motives. (Negroes, Lincoln had originally writtenin his rough draft, are creatures of motives. ) If, for the sake of saving theUnion, they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongestmotive even the promise of freedom. And here, Lincoln added ominously, the promise being made, must be kept. 30 There would, in other words, beno taking back of the Emancipation Proclamation.A pledge of life had to bebalanced with a pledge of freedom, a pledge so solemn that it would balanceforever the risk of life.And then, abruptly, the argument for emancipation seemed spent.Lincolnturned quickly and briefly in the fourth section of the letter to what manyat the fairgrounds might have imagined would have been the longer subjectof his letter, a review of the progress of the war. The signs look better. TheMississippi was now open with the fall of Vicksburg, and the Father ofWaters again goes unvexed to the sea. The Northwest and the Northeasthad all contributed their strength, and so even had the Unionist South, inblack and white. Victories at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, andon many fields of lesser note had been won, while the navy Uncle Sam sWeb-feet had successfully imposed a blockade that covered the deep sea aswell as wherever the ground was a little damp. Thanks went to all, For thegreat republic for the principle it lives by, and keeps alive for man s greatfuture, thanks to all. 31But Lincoln had one more round to fire on behalf of emancipation, andthis became the fifth and most acerbic section [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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